Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-32508024-20170921120744/@comment-27535813-20170923145636

Tristy693 wrote: So... I just wanted to ask if this starmie is good enough to be a PVP mon.

Starmie:

Nature: Hardy (idc about this nature) IVs HP: 29 Attack: 18 Defense: 24 Sp A: 18 Sp D: 16 Speed: 8 EVs: 252 HP and Speed 4 Sp A Moveset: Rapid Spin (for getting rid of stealth rocks etc.) Recover (to regain health and take hits) Psyshock (to deal with stupid venusaurs) And scald (to get burns)

To start off with your Starmie, aside from the nature and IVs that has been stated and talked about earlier, what is the ability? Natural Cure/Illuminate/Analytic? Illuminate is the worst ability since it has no effect in battles at all, with Natural Cure coming 2nd and Analytic being the first aka best ability.

Reason for ranking of Natural Cure and Analytic: Natural Cure is indeed useful in being able to remove statuses and absorb statuses, but Starmie as frail as it is, and most common status users are walls/tanks(these Pokemon are known for having high health, good defense and sp.def stats and may or may not have recovery moves), Starmie will not be able to wallbreak/do a lot of damage against these "tanks". Analytic is useful since Starmie has the ability to outspeed majority of the meta and force switches, and since Analytic works when Starmie moves last, in the priority of a battle, switching moves first, so Starmie gets to do boost damage and fire off harder hitting attacks(even if it's going to be resisted or walled). Ultimately, Natural Cure can be used if you intend to run a recover & reflect type set, although this will be discussed later on on its usefulness.

Secondly, what about your EVs? EVs are known as Effort Values that accumulate in each stat, that you can get EVs specifically for a stat you want by battling specific Pokemon(does not necessarily have to be Wild Pokemon). More can be seen here: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Effort_values

Thirdly, held items. Leftovers and Life Orb are the held items that are commonly used by Starmie, since these are pretty much the only ones that benefit Starmie the most. Leftovers is for the recover & reflect type set w/ Natural Cure, while Life Orb is for the offensive rapid spin set w/ Analytic.

Lastly, the general sets that Starmie can play as.

Scald, Recover, Reflect Type and Rapid spin set is played with 252 EVs in HP, 252 in Speed, 4 in Sp.Atk/HP/Def/Sp.Def with leftovers and Natural Cure ability. The main point of this set is to have increased survivability so that Starmie can survive and efficiently use Rapid Spin throughout the course of the battle without dying too quickly.

Starmie can also play a set consisting of Hydro Pump, Rapid Spin, and moves like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam and Hidden Power Fire, with 252 EVs in Sp.atk, 252 in Speed and 4 in Def/HP/Sp.Def, including Life Orb and Analytic ability. This set capitalises on being fast and having a decent base Sp.Atk set, so Starmie serves as a threat to opponents and possibly force switches, or outspeed and kill them.

My preference on the set Starmie should play is the offensive one, since Starmie is not very bulky in the first place, and even though Starmie will have a hard time switching in with no additional bulk invested at all, Starmie can be helped through slow U-Turns or Volt Switch. This explains why I rank Analytic first, since it complements with the Offensive set best.

All in all, do consider these factors when planning out your team, and of course, excuse my long post!

Starmie can be seen evaluated here: http://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/starmie/uu/

Smogon is a good site for competitive things so do check it out.

Other sources for teambuilding:

Team Building Guide (Google Document)

Smogon- Checks and Counters Article

Smogon - Gen 6 Team Building Guide

Pokemon Showdown - Damage Calculator

Pokemon Showdown (a simulator for competitive battling)

When building your team, do check out these links as a guide/help (you don't have to apply every piece of knowledge necessarily, this is just to help widen your scope of knowledge!) While the Gen 6 guide is considered outdated, it's still quite useful and more beginner-friendly. Good luck on team building!